Drawing of Bicycling Advocate James Schwartz by Michael Rubbo Riding an upright bicycle (or sit-up bicycle) is the key to spreading urban bicycling. That’s what Mike Rubbo believes anyway, and we here at The Urban Country have to agree that the style of bicycle one chooses is as important as anything else to making urban ...

Photo of baby Sofia (Day 1) by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country You may have noticed that The Urban Country has been quiet this week. Between supporting my wife through labour and then subsequently learning how to care for our newborn child, I have had my hands quite full. Our future bicyclist Sofia ...

Do-it-yourself bike share – Photo by Xander / 416CycleStyle.com You won’t find BIXI bike sharing in his neck of the woods. In fact, BIXI may never cover his west Toronto neighbourhood. Instead of waiting, ‘Xander from 416CycleStyle.com set-up his own DIY community bike share system in his neighbourhood to provide his neighbours bicycles for hire: ...

Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Are car-free liveable communities the way of the future? On Friday I posted a video highlighting how most Toronto Cyclists are considerate of others and are just trying to get to their destination in an imperfect city with streets and laws that were designed for automobiles. ...

Being considerate – whether on a bicycle, in a motor car, or on your feet – is important to improving conditions on our shared streets. Treat others as you would like to be treated. If we all lived by that golden rule, our streets would be a much more pleasant place to be. Instead of ...

Toronto’s fragmented bicycle network (PDF download) by The Urban Country Toronto is not unlike the vast majority of cities in North America, UK, and Australia when it comes to bicycle infrastructure. Progressive politicians often aim high, but are often met with resistance by motorists and businesses when building bike infrastructure. Populist politicians pretend they are ...

Google self-driving car on display – photo by Mac Morrison The powerful 2008 documentary film Zeitgeist 2: Addendum suggests that our monetary system based on fractional reserves is the fundamental root cause of all of our social ills in our present day society. Part III of the film focuses on the use of technology to ...

Photo courtesy of Yoav Lerman on Flickr Statistics coming out of the UK tell a somewhat positive story about bicycling in that country. Things are moving slowly to be sure, but the statistics indicate that the shift is at least in the right direction, as more and more people are realizing the benefits of using ...

Photo of Heather Normandale by Adam Thompson / RateMyVelo.com After revealing that the average American works about 2 hours a day to pay for the cost of automobile ownership earlier this month, I was asked to participate in a radio interview for the Edmonton’s CJSR 88.5FM on Full English Breakfast with Peter Chapman to talk ...